


Yellow Tulips

by solahan



Category: Naruto
Genre: Death, F/M, One Sided Love, hanahaki, ino centric, mentioned shikasaku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:34:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23187850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solahan/pseuds/solahan
Summary: yellow tulips: "there's sunshine in your smile"Kiba’s smile is like the sun, and Ino’s forgotten her sunscreen.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba/Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	Yellow Tulips

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this all at three am omg. thinking of writing a flower themed drabble collection for ino because she's awesome and i love her. ALSO completely unrelated but if you know any good shikasaku fics or just shikamaru centric stuff please reccomend in the comments!  
> thank you!!

As a Yamanaka, Ino prides herself on being a good liar. She speaks body language like its her mother tongue, nobody knows something about Ino unless she wants them to. That’s why it’s such a surprise to her when Sakura pulls her into an empty examination room and demands to know why she hasn’t told anyone. 

(She didn’t ask who, or why she wouldn’t get the operation, Forehead just knows her like that, their unspoken familiarity is why she is her best friend, even after all these years)

Ino just shrugs her off and tells her not to worry, she does what she does best, she _lies._

But Sakura is no longer her small pink haired shadow, following her every word guilessly. Sakura is a now a strong kunoichi, bright and unyielding. ‘Oh how beautifully you’ve bloomed, Sakura’ she thinks 

(please continue to bloom when i’m gone, she wants to say)

If you asked Ino when she fell in love with Kiba, she would say she doesn’t know. 

(She would lie)

_She fell in love with him in the spring. Their friendship was an offbeat one, they were never close in the academy, during the Chuunin exam preliminaries they were placed in bed next to each other in the sick bay after they lost their fights._

_“Can’t believe you got your ass kicked by a pink haired girl, huh Yamanaka?” He said with a wolfish grin._

_Ino glared, she didn’t want to think about her defeat, she wanted silence to wallow in her self pity._

_“Can it dog boy! Plus it was a_ tie _, which is more than you can say, huh? She mocked back_

_He looked taken aback for a second, and then he dissolved into laughter. “Looks like princess has some claws after all! I wasn’t expecting you to come at me that hard, you know we should spar sometime Yamanaka” At this Ino was taken aback, it was the first time anyone outside for her team had asked her to train with them. “I’m game whenever you are Inuzuka” She said with faked nonchalance to mask her surprise and he just grinned back_

_It didn’t stop there, Konoha was in ruins after the invasion and they were often paired together on D rank construction jobs. They spent long days swapping jabs and training tips. Somewhere in between impromptu training sessions, missions and lunches, Kiba just became a fixture in her life. He helped her out at the flower shop on their off days and walked her home from their missions._

_And then Sasuke defected._

_She remembers the anxiety, the way her hands shook with worry as she waited for them to come home. And the dark pit that formed in her stomach when she saw him on the stretcher, Choji being wheeled behind him. Everything sounded like white noise, and she wanted to go find the Uchiha and knee him in the balls so bad, maybe stick a kunai in his-_

_Shikamaru’s hand waving in front of her face shook her out of her stupor. She took in Shikamaru’s broken finger, the sad and tired look in his eyes, the way his chuunin vest seemed to weigh a million pounds._

_“Ino are you alright?” He said worriedly. She shot him a glare and then wrapped him in a hug. He tensed at first, but eventually slumped into her arms. She held him for a long moment before she took a step back and punched him viciously in his arm._

_“Ow! What was that for troublesome woman?”_

_“For going off and chasing traitors without me! Do you know how worried I was? Just because you got promoted doesn’t mean we aren’t a team anymore! We will always be Ino-Shika-Cho whether you like it or not! Got it, you lazy bastard! You don’t have to do everything yourself.” Her voice faded from the loud screeching she knew he hated to a soft whisper at the end. Shikamaru lifted his head and nodded slowly at her, but his eyes were warm with gratitude._

_“Mou, Ino do you have to be so loud” He said as he sagged into the seat next to her._

_She spent the following days at Kiba’s bedside when she wasn’t training or at the flower shop. Thankfully, he made a full recovery within a couple days so his hospitalization was short. That didn’t stop Ino from nagging at him._

_“Aw quit your yapping Yamanaka, I’m alive aren’t I?” He said._

_“Yeah, because the Sand Siblings saved your sorry hide!” She snarked back._

_He suddenly sat up in his bed with an unreadable look in his eyes._

_“You were worried about me?” He said softly_

_“W-well, of course I was” She cursed herself for stuttering, and rolled her eyes with a sniff, “Why wouldn’t I be, honestly Ki-Inuzuka” She stiffened at her slip up_

_“Your a great friend Ino” He said with a megawatt smile._

  
  


_Oh_

Oh

_At the sight of his grin, Ino felt her heart stutter and the breath catch in her throat. It was like Kiba’s smile was the sun and Ino had forgotten her sunscreen._

_(_ she always did burn easily _)_

  
  


From that day on, Ino knew that she was in love with Kiba Inuzuka. As things got settled down, Kiba returned to taking regular mission with Team 8 and Ino with Choji and Asuma. Soon both teams started gearing up for the next Chunin exams in Kiri, Naruto’s departure on his training trip seemed to light a fire under everyone’s asses. Ino trained harder than she ever had before. Next time Shikamaru decides to go on a super dangerous mission, she’ll be there by his side.

And She does.

Armed with her almost perfected clan jutsus she dances her way through the exams. In the finals she fights a boy from Kumo and perfectly traps him in her mind control jutsu, but not before an impressive display of taijutsu and water style attacks. She eventually loses to Rock Lee in the third round, but she comes home with a brand new Chunin vest anyway. 

For a while everything seems a little brighter. She spends her time running B-ranks with her team and training with Kiba. They spend a long afternoon sparing then lying on the grass watching the sun set. Training ground 15 is _theirs._ They work on taijutsu and push each other to their limits. Then after thoroughly beating the crap out of each other they would flop on the grass and just talk. He told her about his father walking out on his mom, his fear of being the dead weight on his team and the way he envied Naruto. She told him about her problems with her self image, they way she felt like Sakura was leaving her behind and the burden she felt as clan heir.

(It was there at training ground 15, in between sparring sessions and long conversations about their insecurities that she realized it)

Then the petals came.

_She was at the market running errands when she ran into them. Kiba and Hinata were sitting at the picnic tables outside of the new tempura place. She went to call out to them when Kiba leaned over and kissed Hinata. She froze as still as a statue on the sidewalk and watched as Hinata blushed tomato red. Heart thumping she turned away from the happy couple and went home._

_She stayed in bed for three days. On the third Sakura showed up with a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream and a disapproving look._

_“Shika told me that you’ve been in here for the past week” She announced, shoving the blankets to the side and invading her bed._

_“I hate the fact that the two of you are together now” Ino grumbled into her pillows._

_Sakura forced her out of bed and they spent the weekend devouring ice cream while watching romcoms and doing facemasks_

_By the time Sakura left for her own house Ino felt a little less like her heart ripping itself up in her chest. The girl in the mirror was sad but not hopeless. “I’m Ino Freaking Yamanaka!” She yelled at her reflection and burst into hysterical laughter that’s more bitter than mirthful._

_Then suddenly the laughter turns into choked coughs. She bends over the toilet and spits out a sticky mouthful of blood. And sitting in the middle of the toilet bowl coated in dark blood is six yellow tulip petals._

_(Yellow Tulips, “There’s Sunshine in Your Smile”, oh how cruel the fates are, she thought)_

After that day in the bathroom Ino started making plans. She was always pragmatic and she had so much unfinished business and only eight more months to live. 

So she planned.

She wrote letters, to her father, to Sakura, to Choji, Shikamaru, Naruto, TenTen and Lee, Kurenai and Mirai, and Hinata, Shino, and finally Kiba.

She thanked them, apologized and crammed the paragraphs full of love. The next seven months she laughed louder and cried harder and tried to spend every moment with everyone she could. But the disease took a toll on her body, and it was only a matter of time before someone caught on. 

“Tell me, Ino-pig” Sakura said worriedly, her voice echoing off the empty examination room. 

“I just want t-”

“Its Hanahaki and I- I found out seven months ago” She says looking away from Sakura.

“But-t that means you have a month left, Ino-pig…” 

Ino stood up and grasped Sakura’s hand. “You can’t tell anyone, forehead girl! I’m sorry for being selfish, but I want my last days to be filled with happiness. I want to enjoy my time while I can.” There are tears streaming down her face but she has a smile nonetheless.

Sakura keeps her promise and her last few weeks are full of smiles and quality time with all her favorite people. Ino make sure to drag everyone she can to get togethers and treats her team to lunch everyday. She even hangs out with Kiba and Hinata, her chest stinging panifully with suppressed coughs.

“You don’t look too hot” Kiba remarks with worry. She shoves at him says “I always look hot!” playfully. When the concern doesn’t leave his eyes she tells him she’s just tired and flashes a bright smile and swallows the petals that attempt to crawl up her throat.

Ino’s friends take her new clinginess well and they hug a little tighter and laugh a little louder. Her days are colored by love and yellow flowers that get bigger and bigger each day..

She passes away peacefully, in her house surrounded by fully bloomed yellow tulips. It’s almost beautiful.

The funeral is short. Decked out in the most beautiful flower arrangements and inside the garden in the Yamanaka compound. 

_“Here lies Ino Yamanaka_

_Daughter_

_Friend_

_A Flower in a Garden of Thorns”_

Across Konoha, Kiba is doubled over in his room. Tears long since dried, his chest is racked with coughs. Something dislodges itself from his lungs, and sitting in his hands is a single yellow petal. 


End file.
